1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular, to a computer implemented method for processing events. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for distributing event processing in event relationship networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several data processing systems may communicate with each other in a network of data processing systems. As a part of this communication, a data processing system may send messages that inform other data processing systems about conditions existing on the sender data processing system. Network designers call these messages “events.”
By receiving an event, a data processing system may become aware of a condition that may exist in the data processing system or the vicinity of the data processing system, such as in a data network. The condition or state may be a condition or state of a hardware component, a software component, data, or a combination thereof. For example, a data storage system may have a condition where the free data storage capacity is below a preset threshold. The data storage system may inform other data processing systems about this condition by sending an event.
An event may relate to other events that may be present in a given data processing system or in the data processing system's vicinity. For example, an event may indicate to a data processing system that a login attempt has failed. Another event, by being related to the first event, may inform the data processing system that a second login attempt has also failed.
A data processing system may listen for events and process the events according to rules. Data processing systems may perform certain actions based on the events or the relationship of the events they recognize. For example, a rule may be that the data processing system locks a user account after three consecutive failed logins within a five-minute period. The rule may further direct the data processing system to send an email notice to a system administrator.
Events are processed on data processing systems by rules engines that execute a set of rules. A set of rules is one or more rules. The data processing systems send and receive events that are then processed by rules engines. Several rules engines may be operating on several data processing systems running on several data processing systems in a network of data processing systems. Communication among the data processing systems, and consequently among the rules engines operating thereon, can produce a volume of event related data traffic in that data network.
Data processing systems may exchange many types of events amongst themselves over a network. A data processing system may also lookup event data in other data processing systems for information relating to an event. Event data is data relating to an event, such as the data describing the event, the data referenced by the event, and the data usable for processing the event.